Unbranded cigarette packs could mean people smoke more, experts warn

Putting cigarettes in plain packs could lead to a rise in sales, experts have said, as smokers will no longer care about buying expensive brands.

The warning came as industry data from Australia - the only country to introduce plain packaging - suggests that the amount of tobacco delivered to retailers has risen in the year since changes were made.

Later this week an independent review will report to ministers on the case for banning branded cigarette packs.

Health campaigners say such a move would protect children, who are less likely to take up smoking if packs are unbranded.

Yesterday Marlboro maker Philip Morris International released data from Australia, which introduced a ban in December 2012.

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Cigarette manufacturers said the figures showed the first rise in deliveries to retailers in five years, reversing a downward trends.

They suggested that with brands no longer on show, smokers might be opting to choose cheaper cigarettes, which meant they could afford to buy more of them.

Anti-smoking campaigners in this country said they were concerned that this could happen, but said a ban should be backed by increased taxes to “level up” the prices of cigarettes.

However, they said the main reason for a ban was to prevent children from taking up smoking in the first place.

Ministers are considering introducing standardised packaging on all tobacco products, forcing companies to replace their logos and branding with identical plain packs.

Proposals aimed at reducing the number of children and teenagers drawn to smoking by attempts to market cigarettes as glamorous, were put on hold in 2012 after ministers said they wanted to see the evidence which emerged from Australia before taking a decision.

Later this week, Sir Cyril Chantler, a former paediatrician, will publish an independent review of the matter.

Deborah Arnott, director of Action on Smoking and Health, said: “We are repeatedly seeing attempts to undermine the case for standardised packaging. The number one reason for standardised packaging is to protect children. It is about dissuading them from taking up smoking - and one year’s data from Australia about delivery levels of tobacco tells us nothing about that.”

The figures in the analysis represent the amount of tobacco shipped to retailers in Australia by major companies including Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco Group .

However, they do not represent actual sales to consumers.

The data shows that in 2013, the first full year of plain packaging, tobacco companies sold the equivalent of 21.074 billion cigarettes in Australia - a rise of 0.3 per cent after four years of decline.

Factory-made cigarettes declined by 0.1 per cent. But loose tobacco volume rose 3.4 per cent, suggesting that more consumers may have turned to roll-up cigarettes in the absence of brand competition.

Ms Arnott said: “There is a concerns that people could move towards cheaper brands - why pay extra for a premium cigarette if no-one knows what you are smoking but we think the best way to tackle this is by taxation, and to level the prices so there is a minimum excise tax on tobacco.

Eoin Dardis, director of corporate affairs for Philip Morris in Britain, said: “When you commoditise a product, people go after the price. If people are buying cheaper stuff, maybe they’re smoking more of it, I don’t know ... It’s definitely a point of interest and that’s something that absolutely needs to be explored because that’s the counter of what this policy was seeking to achieve.”